Walking Away from God

I find it very sad that so many people saying they used to be Christians or believers in God turned from Him and religion when sad or bad things happened in their life. Badness and sadness happens. We can’t avoid it no matter who we are, where we live or what we do or don’t believe in. The saddest thing is how they all blame God for what happens in life.

God gave man free will. It is that free will that brings about much of the badness we see in our world. It’s man using his free will to cause murder, mayhem and suffering to man and beast he lives alongside. Even to the planet we live on.

Illness and disease happens, yet even these are often caused by man and what he has done to food we eat, water we drink. From the chemicals he releases into our world thereby contaminating the air, sea and water we drink.

We have to die sometime and if there were no illnesses, we’d all just die of old age. Even that can be sad to watch too. People expect miracles. They all think their loved ones should be the ones to receive a miracle and be saved. This is an unreasonable demand when praying to God and shows our love for Him is only conditional on Him doing everything we want or ask for in life.

This conditional love says we don’t accept what is His will. When we pray, it is to ask for help and for prayers to be answered – and they always are. The fact they sometimes aren’t answered in the way we ask, means we don’t recongise the ways He did help.

We close our eyes to the truth due to our anger, pain and need to place blame on God for everything going wrong. Life isn’t perfect, it isn’t meant to be. Heaven is perfect and if all was so wonderful here with no pain, suffering, angst, death or worries, what would be the point of heaven and how would we grow as people?

When sad and bad things happen, we can either allow them to strengthen us and our hope and faith in God, or we can allow Satan to use us at our weakest times to tempt us away from God. Will you be weak and easily led, or will you remain strong and have faith that God knows what He is doing and why these things have to happen – and when and how they do?

I choose to allow such things to strengthen me. No matter how much life throws at me – and my God it has been more than anyone will ever know – and no matter how much it causes pain or upset, I use it to bring me closer to God; to depend on Him and recognise without Him I am nothing.

I have faith and believe everything in life that happens is for a reason. It isn’t the easy or good things in life we learn lessons from, it is the bad things, the sad things. How we cope says much about us as individuals.

No one said life or love would be easy. Love isn’t easy, it’s darned hard – so is life for most of us. When we love someone and give our whole heart and being to them – we open ourselves to not just joy, but to pain and sorrow too. Joy is ours if they love us in return as we deserve to be loved, sorrow is ours if they don’t and use our love for selfish reasons.

Love is wonderful when we’re healthy, fit, enjoying life and for as long as love lasts, but sorrow and pain can come when the ones we love are ill, suffering, missing, die or just stop loving us. Love then brings us such deep sorrow and pain more than some hearts can bear.

This is when God is trying hard to carry us and help us through. He hurts to see us hurt, but remember, you aren’t being asked to suffer or go through anything He hasn’t Himself. As man, Jesus was ridiculed, tortured, lied about, had those who professed to love Him turn on Him and have Him put to death.

He knew pain, suffering, torure, lies and death, just as we will all have to go through. How then can we turn from someone who had no need to go through all those things, but chose to in order to be as us and to save us? Is this how we too repay Him by turning our backs on Him just as those others did?

Share your sufferings with God. Offer them up and walk alongside Him in the pain and suffering He endured and went through for you. Who knows, by walking with Him, you might just find you’re not so alone as you thought you were. That whatever it is that caused you to turn from Him, might just be a little easier to get through if you turn back and ask Him to walk with you and guide you through it.

After all, who better to help us through pain and suffering than those who have already experienced it themselves and know what it is we’re feeling? Many forget, God has been there Himself. Who better then, to walk beside us and help us through our roughest and hardest times than Him?

Prayer to St Michael

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
Oh Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all evil spirits,
who wonder through the world
for the ruin of souls. Amen.